


Time Brings An End to Everything

by thatidiot



Category: Ghosts (TV 2019)
Genre: Afterlife, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Canonical Character Death, Character Death, Everyone Needs A Hug, Family Issues, Fluff, Friendship, Ghosts, Growing Old, How Do I Tag, I have no idea how to tag, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Self-Acceptance, Self-Discovery, and everyone will get a hug I promise, and in desperate need of hugs, basically the passage of time from the oldest ghost to the newest, building family, enjoy i guess, the title makes no sense, they help each other through it, theyre all scarred and broken
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-03
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-03-10 07:42:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27689807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatidiot/pseuds/thatidiot
Summary: Death isn’t new to Button House. And the residents who have befallen it have seen a lot.My take on each of the ghosts’ lives and deaths, exploring what they left behind and how they coped with losing it.Yeah, I suck at writing summaries.
Relationships: ghosts/happiness
Comments: 12
Kudos: 30





	1. Robin-One

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, thanks for checking this story out! :)  
> I’m not sure how many chapters each character will have focusing on them. I’m thinking maybe three or four each, but that might change.  
> I hope you enjoy this! <3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no idea how this'll be structured. I might try and do three or four chapters per ghost story, with maybe one in between each set focusing on a relationship or something, i don't even know. Anyway, hope you enjoy this! :)

One of Robin’s favourite things about lookout was getting to see the moon. It was high tonight, gracing the valley with its replenishing silver light. He raised his eyes to the sky and smiled softly. He loved nights like these. The tribe were safe, there was food secured for the morning, and everything just...worked.

’Chief,’ came a grunt behind him.

He straightened his back and turned to see a dark-haired, well-built man whose furs were tight across his chest.

’Lark,’ Robin grunted back, greeting him with a nod.

’Young ones safely sleeping, in caves. Need me to keep watch?’

He shook his head. ‘I do it. Go. Rest.’

The man offered an odd little jerky bow. Robin still hadn’t got used to that: people feeling the need to bow to him. Lark turned on his heel, his padded feet scraping on the rocks. Robin watched him go to make sure he didn’t slip and fall. A place like this, with so much open space, was less than ideal for a tribe of this size, especially with some of the children growing older and more curious. If any of them wandered out too far and got lost...they wouldn’t last a day. That was one of the benefits of having a big tribe, Robin supposed. They all looked out for each other.

And yet there was still so much to be done. Of course, yesterday’s kill meant food for the next few days, but what then? Not many creatures worth killing would be stupid enough to graze out in the open like this. And what about when the winter set in? Nothing ahead then but barren landscapes and huddling together against the cold. It would be practically impossible to hunt anything. He hoped they would be able to move on and find safer grounds before that time. But until then, the tribe had to eat somehow, and it fell to Robin to figure it out. He was beginning to feel lightheaded with the weight of it all.

He touched the crown of leaves on his head absent-mindedly. One of the women had made it for him after the tribe had fallen under his command. It was a symbol of power, a symbol of control. Control over the tribe, his leadership. Robin was beginning to doubt that.

Sighing, he trundled away from the hills and sat down at the edge of the circle of rocks they had eaten on. The fire had almost gone out: a few glowing embers were all that remained. Robin felt an urge to put them out. They were insulting the glow of the moon.

Yet again, he was reminded of his promise. His promise to Bramble. He’d promised to take care of the tribe, take care of the children. Take care of the boy. How could he do that, if he could hardly take care of himself?

He put a clumsy finger to his face. It came away wet.

‘Da?’

Gasping, he turned, mouth open in an instinctive snarl. His eyes widened at the sight he was met with. A small boy, silhouetted in the entrance to the cave, furs that were far too big hanging off his arms. Just a boy.

Robin sniffed and harshly rubbed at his eyes with an arm. Blinking hard, he tried his best to smile. ‘River. Everything okay?’

The boy hesitated. He looked away, fiddling with his fingers in childish anxiety.

’Want up?’ Robin asked him after a moment. He raised his arms in the boy’s direction.

The child paused...then nodded.

Like a hare he scurried across the space between them. Robin caught him in his arms when he got there, and with a swift movement brought the boy into his lap. Little River instinctively grabbed hold of the older man’s furs and buried his face in his chest. Robin, although a little taken aback, eventually relaxed and wrapped his arms around the boy, enveloping him into a tight hug.

After a moment, he held River at arm’s length and tenderly lifted his chin until they made eye contact. ‘Can’t sleep?’

The boy shook his head, not letting go of Robin’s clothing.

’Nightmare?’ Robin asked him.

He shook his head again.

’Sick?’

Again, not the right answer.

’Then what?’

River hesitated, adjusting himself in Robin’s lap. When he spoke, it was two words.

'Miss Pa.'

A bolt of sorrow flashed through Robin's chest. He felt his eyes prickling already. How hadn't he realised this before? He'd been so caught up in everything else, so focused on his inherited leadership of the tribe, so distraught over the loss of his older brother, his closest friend and confidante, that he hadn't even given a thought to the boy. Poor River had lost his _father._

What could one say to someone who had been through that? There were no words, in truth. No words in Robin's, fairly quite limited, vocabulary that would make the boy feel better.

When he replied, it too was only two words.

'Me too.'

They hugged again. A desperate, melancholy hug. River buried his face back into Robin's chest, his tiny body trembling with barely contained sobs. Tears came for Robin too, but the slow, silent kind, the kind that seemed determined prolong his misery for as long as possible. He wrapped his arms around the boy's shaking body and rested his cheek on the top of his head, enveloping him in a warm embrace.

 _It’s okay_ , he wanted to say. But he knew it wasn’t.

He didn’t know what to say.

Sniffling, River lifted his head slightly. ‘Da?’

’Hmm?’

’Pa up there now?’

He raised a tiny hand and pointed up to the dark sky. Robin followed his gesture and stared at it for a moment. The sky was cloudless, embroidered with stars that seemed to glow brighter as he raised his eye to them. Sighing softly, he adjusted River in his lap.

‘Up there. See?’

He took River’s outstretched hand in his own and guided the pointing finger until it was levelled at the benevolent moon. Robin smiled as the boy’s eyes widened.

‘Up there,’ Robin said, in a slow and practised manner, ‘is where all dead go. When you die, body stays here. Is a memory of them, for those down below. But their spirit...that go up into the sky.’

The little boy gave a little gasp of wonder. ‘And that where Pa is?’

Robin nodded. ‘Moonah welcome spirit. Moonah keep safe. Keeps spirit whole in form of star.’ He gestured to the star closest to the moon. ‘Moonah keep safe, until you can be back together with tribe, with family.’

’So Pa is in star?’

He nodded again.

’Which?’

’Which you think?’

River shuffled forward and looked up. Robin watched his eyes squint and his tongue poke out in concentration, as he scrutinised every star in the endless sky. Eventually, the boy sat back and pointed. ‘That one. Big and strong, like Pa.’

The older man chuckled. ‘Good choice.’ He moved his head and kissed the boy’s forehead softly. ‘Pa watch you from up there. He keep you safe.’

The boy seemed comforted by this, and locked eyes with him, his eyes shining. Robin looked into those eyes, and, just a for a moment, swore he could see a different boy in them. A boy, years ago, lost after the death of his mother, hearing these same words from a father now dead and gone.

‘So Pa not gone. Just waiting?’

’Yes.’

’For me?’

’For all of us,’ Robin reassured him. ‘And when I go, I watch over you too.’

This made River grip his arm tightly. ‘But not go yet? Promise me, you not go.’

Robin gently took his arm away. ‘Promise. Not yet.’

The smile reappeared on the little boy’s face.

’There. Now think you can sleep?’

River nodded and said, ‘Think so.’

Quite suddenly, Robin was taken aback by the boy throwing his arms around his neck. He buried his face into his uncle’s shoulder. Robin tensed, slightly overwhelmed by this.

From his fur, he could hear River’s tiny voice.

’I love you, Da.’

At this, he almost instinctively put his arms around the boy’s back.

’I love you too, River.’

After a moment, River pulled away and climbed down from Robin’s lap. Smiling softly, more to himself than anyone else, he turned and waddled back to the cave where the other children slept.

Robin watched him go, a new-found warmth fluttering in his chest. He sat there alone for a moment, watching the last of the embers in the fire burn out. Then he stood, rolling his shoulders, and looked up to the sky again. He locked eyes with Bramble’s star, smiling.

There, he made a vow to his brother that he would protect the boy. With his life, if necessary.

And with that thought, he could have sworn the star burned brighter.

Touching his crown, he turned on his heel and loped away towards the caves.

The moon watched him go.


	2. Robin-Two

That night, Robin dreamt of his brother.

———

_The rain fell in cold, grey lines, landing heavily on the ground and making the whole forest wet and colourless. The lines and defined shapes of the trees and flowers merged together into one messy shape behind the raindrops. Overhead the clouds had drained the sky of all its blue, and the sun gulped and spluttered for breath under their immense weight. There was no wind, nothing to carry the sounds of the forest creatures, nothing to reassure Robin that he wasn’t completely, utterly alone._

_He ran a small hand through his unkept hair, clawing the rain out of it. In his other hand he clutched a white flower, one of the large ones with a yellow centre and purple tips on its snow-coloured petals. He remembered Ma had always loved those._

_He had snuck away from the rest of the tribe and ran here all by himself. He felt almost proud. Proud that he had remembered, or proud that he hadn’t got eaten along the way? Perhaps both. He had felt strong then. Strong and brave._

_Standing here now, looking over the pile of mud and dirt that he remembered standing over a while ago, he didn’t feel either of those things. He felt small._

_He wanted to say something, but didn’t know how. What was there left to say? And anyway, Ma wouldn’t have heard him with all the clouds in the way of the stars._

_So instead, he opened his hand and let the flower fall. It landed silently on the heap of earth, and settled there. Robin hoped Ma would be able to find it. He should have really come when the rain cleared. She would have a better chance of seeing it then._

_’There you are!’_

_The loud voice made him start. He let out a little gasp and turned around, half expecting a huge wolf to leap out of the trees and swallow him whole. But it was just Bramble, he realised with a sigh._

_’Pa looking for you,’ Bramble said, stepping down the grass towards him. ‘Not happy you go off not telling. Thought I come down n’ find you ‘fore he does.’_

_Robin didn’t reply. He kept his gaze on the flower, which still hadn’t moved._

_His brother sniffed and came to his side. ‘What you look at anyway?’_

_They stood silently for a few moments, staring down at the same spot on the hard ground. Eventually..._

_’No one remember,’ little Robin said quietly._

_’Hmm?’_

_’No one remember. Me do.’_

_It took Bramble another moment to realise what he meant. When he did, he let out a small sigh and dipped his head closer to his little brother’s._

_’A ‘course we remember,’ he said._

_’Then why not come?’_

_He paused before answering. ‘Cause Pa want move on. Said so himself. Is good that you remember, though. She be happy ‘bout that.’  
_

_Robin sniffed and looked up to the grey sky. ‘But she not see. Clouds in way: no stars. She not_ see. _’_

_That last word was said more loudly, more desperately, as if Robin were trying to awaken the stars himself._

_Bramble gently put an arm around his brother. ‘No worry. She see. She know.’_

_’H-how?’_

_’Cause,’ Bramble smiled gently, ‘you remember. Remember her...’ He raised his other arm and placed his hand flat on Robin’s chest. ‘...here.’_

_Robin’s own hand hovered over his. Somehow, that did make him feel slightly better.  
_

_’One day you be back with her. Til then...you have me. You always have me.’_

_The younger boy hesitated...then smiled._

_Bramble grinned widely at him. ‘Good. Now come. Pa not happy, with both of us now.’_

_Keeping a tight grip on his shoulder, Bramble guided Robin away back towards the tribe. In the rain, the flower lay stiffly on the earth, petals bobbing up and down gently as the raindrops hit their tips._

_———_

The storm came a few days later. It hit the valley with a force that seemed almost otherworldly. Walls of rain were thrown down in unison, rocketing down to the ground and exploding into a thousand missile-like droplets. The black sky suffocated the sun and every star, lighting up in bursts with tongues of lightning chasing each other through the clouds. All around, the sound of thunder rolled across the fields and back again, like the mocking laughter of the gods themselves.

Robin was swift to react. He ordered the whole tribe to retreat into the largest of their caves, crowd right to the back to offer them as much protection from the elements as possible. The children cried and clung to their mothers, faces twisted in terror. The males formed a protective barrier around the more vulnerable members of the tribe, using their bulky bodies to shield them from the updraft of rain.

Robin was still close to the outside of the cave, watching the sky with a troubled expression. He cursed himself for being so stupid. This. This was what he had been most worried about when they settled here. Even the largest cave had a wide entrance, which barely kept them sheltered from elements. He gritted his teeth.

Suddenly he felt a soft hand on his shoulder. Tensing, he turned his head. Behind him stood a thin woman with shiny dark hair and pale green eyes. Her appearance reminded Robin of a wild hare. He instantly recognised her as Clover. Bramble’s mate. River’s mother. The two had been on good terms for a while now, but they hadn’t spoken to each other since...well, since Bramble’s death.

Clover smiled at him, her eyes glittering with compassion.

’Not your fault, you know,’ she said, squeezing his shoulder firmly. ‘None of this. We just unlucky.’

He nodded, although it was clear to both of them he did not believe her.

’How’s River?’ he asked her.

Her rabbit eyes widened. ‘He not with you?’

’No. Haven’t seen him all morning.’

Clover suddenly went pale. ‘Then where is he?’

A man nearby overheard their conversation. Gruffly, he said, ‘Saw th’ boy out runnin’ near the water. Playin’ by himself. He not come back?’

Robin’s blood froze, a cold spike jabbing through his heart. For a moment, he swore he stopped breathing. His mind whirred with what ifs and should haves, a mess of panic and worry, but at the forefront one thing burned brightly: protect the boy.

’Get back,’ he ordered, a new icy quality to his voice, ‘all you, now. I go find him.’

’Robin, no,’ Clover cried immediately, gripping his arm with both hands. ‘It not safe. Can’t lose you, too.’

Gently, he removed her hands, gripping them tightly in his own. ‘I find him. Bring back safe. Promise.’

She opened her mouth, then closed it. Robin smiled reassuringly and kissed her hand.

With that, he was gone. Away from the safety of the cave, away from his tribe, but all the while closer to the boy. Thunder crashed above his head, reprimanding him for being so reckless. But Robin’s ears didn’t have time to register its angry bellowing. Instead, he felt a new surge of energy in his legs, as if the lightning had struck them, pouring blood and fire into his muscles. His feet pummelled the ground as he ran, blocking out the thunder, the cold rain, fighting through the relentless wind, fighting to get to River.

It didn’t take him long at that pace to reach the lake. The water was upset and was being tossed violently by the storm. Robin skidded to a halt a little way from the water’s edge, looking around frantically.

’River! RIVER!’

It took four more screams for him to hear the tiny cries of ‘Da! Da!’ from across the valley. His eyes scoured the horizon, his breathing ragged and eyes red and wet with frustration.

When he finally found the boy, his heart stopped.

Out in the centre of the field, he was. He must have ran out there, confused and terrified, trying to stumble back to his family. The rain and wind howled and bit at Robin’s body, scraping at his face with long hooked claws.

He didn’t think any longer. He just ran.

River screamed out for help, not noticing him.

He ran.

The rain continued to fall in sharp lines.

Thunder cackled savagely and filled the whole world with its laughter.

Robin reached out his arms.

Above his head, a bolt of lightning formed and splintered across the sky.

Down, down, towards the ground.

’RIVER!’

Finally, _finally_ , the boy heard him. Paralysed with the cold and horror, River watched as Robin scrambled towards him.

The lightning was going to beat him there.

There was a brief moment of recognition, a brief moment of sheer relief. That happened as Robin reached the boy and scooped him up in his arms, pulling his head to his chest securely. He panted, his legs trembling with effort, his teeth chattering in the cold.

The boy was safe. And that was all that mattered.

And that, he would remember, was the last thought he had.

A deafening crack filled the whole world. At the same time, Robin felt himself be set on fire. His blood, his bones, everything, burning, ending, dying-

And then there was silence.

The rain fell silently now. The sky went dark, just dark, and the fire in the clouds were gone.

And in the centre of a muddied field, under the cold glare of the concealed stars, lay a single figure, dressed in furs.

The creature didn’t move. It never would again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I barely know anything about the Paleolithic era, so forgive me if some of this was innaccurate.


	3. Robin-Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This will probably be my last Robin-centred chapter. I’m moving on to Humphrey next :)

Overall, it took about three days for Robin to discover he’d been lied to.

It didn’t take long at all to realise he was no longer part of the world he’d grown up in. As soon as he regained consciousness he’d been greeted with the sight of tiny River shaking the shoulders of a limp, fur-covered creature, uttering frightened whimpers as he tried to get it to move.

’Da,’ he said, over and over. ‘Da. Da.’

He tried to reach out, to talk to him, to cradle the the boy in his arms and tell him it was okay, he was there and he would never let him go again. But it became clear very quickly that he had used up all his chances to do that. All he could do was watch, cold, frustrated tears spilling down his hollow face, as the little boy sobbed and buried his face in the dead thing’s chest.

Overhead the rain came down strong as ever, but the lightning had ceased and the thundered had rolled away back across the valley. River was safe now.

Safe, but alone.

And so was Robin, he realised.

Eventually the boy was found by other members of the tribe. Among them was Clover, his mother who Robin vaguely remembered telling him not to go in the first place. He tensed at the sight of her. 

He watched her as she struggled to the front of the party and take in the scene. Her eyes widened and she was silent. Dumbfounded, her companions let out small gasps of disbelief and fear.

A moment passed. It seemed to last a thousand years.

And Clover’s face crumpled. She began to weep too, though it wasn’t clear whether it was out of relief in finding her boy, or out of sorrow and despair from finding one of their own struck down. Perhaps a little of both.

She fell to her knees at her son’s side, one hand on his back as he howled into the dead man’s fur. It broke Robin’s heart to hear them cry...not that it felt like he had a heart anymore. It felt a dead weight in his chest, like a stone restricting his breath.

He didn’t know how long they sat there, mourning the body. He didn’t seem to know much anymore. All he seemed to remember to do was cry, silently.

Wiping her face, Clover stood, her long dark hair falling in knots past her shoulders. Robin raised his head. What was she doing? He watched, puzzled, as she gave the watching tribesmen a solemn nod. As a body they turned and shuffled back in the direction they had come. They had gone to tell the tribe about the death of their chief, Robin realised. His own death. And he was watching the aftermath unfold before his eyes.

Little River still hadn’t moved from the body. His face was down in the thing’s chest, tiny, trembling hands clutching the fur like he was drowning. He didn’t even look up as Clover dropped to his side again. She put her hands on his shaking shoulders.

And she began to pull him away.

Almost immediately River and Robin realised what she was doing. Her arms were around his chest, dragging him away from the body. Face red with sorrow and despair, the boy reached out his arms, clawing at the air with his fingers, digging into the ground with his feet.

_’Da! Da, no! No!’_

His screams were enough to make the gods weep. Robin lurched forward in desperation. They were taking River away. They couldn’t do that. River needed to stay with him. River needed him. He needed River.

He began to shout as the boy was stolen from him. Each sound ripped his chest raw and set his hollow lungs on fire, and yet they kept coming. He tried to run towards River, but only ended up stumbling like a wolf pup venturing out of its den for the first time. His legs felt lighter and with less substance; they no longer felt as if they touched the ground when he walked. This feeling caused him to trip and hit the ground face-first.

Chest heaving, he pushed himself up to his knees and looked up. He watched helplessly as the screaming boy was taken away, dragged back to the tribe where Robin could no longer go.

He would never see the boy again.

Quivering, he collapsed into a sitting position, spreading out his aching legs. He raised his hands to his face. They looked completely normal: no scarring, no blood. The same grubby hands he’d always had. Except they didn’t seem quite _there_. Did that mean he was a spirit?

At that thought, his hands went cold. Robin spluttered in amazement as before his eyes, his fingertips turned to mist. They snaked out of his hands in pale tendrils, twisting away from him in the air, distorting his whole hand completely. Gasping, he watched wordlessly as the mist danced up his wrists and twirled around his body like fireflies. Eventually, they completed their circuit and settled back into their original place, making his hands whole again. It was as if the moon had answered his question.

He brought his hands to his chest in case they decided to leave him for good. Shaking, he carefully got to his feet again. He felt almost...weightless.

He wasn’t sure how long he stood there for. It must have been a while, as eventually he noticed the clouds had cleared and the stars were out. They burned brightly as ever.

That was when it really hit Robin that something was severely wrong. If he could see the stars from here, that meant he wasn’t among them. He wasn’t with all the tribe’s spirits, up in the sky.

He let out a shaky breath. How could that be? Had the moon not accepted him into her keep? Did she think him not worthy? Why wouldn’t she take him? What had he done?

That was why his form wasn’t whole. The moon had rejected him. Bramble, his parents, countless family members, were watching him from above. Putting him. _Ridiculing_ him.

They were all up there. But why hadn’t they received Robin’s spirit.

Unless...

Unless they had never been there in the first place.

Unless they were trapped in this world too.

’No,’ he muttered breathlessly to himself, ‘no, no...’

Lies. All of it.

There was no glorious afterlife. No chance to be whole again. No chance to see his loved ones, be reunited with them, he happy. There was just... _this._

No way forward. No way back. He was stuck.

 _’You always have me._ ’ That was what his brother had said, all those years ago. Where was Bramble now? Where was he when Robin needed him? Was he lost, too, lonely, forever bound to the place where the fever had taken him? Robin couldn’t leave this place. He couldn’t go and find him.

Standing here now, under the cheating, deceitful stars, he felt as small, as helpless, as he had that day standing over his mother’s grave.

Only this time, his brother would not come and make everything make sense.

And he would never see his family again. River...he wouldn’t be able to protect him anymore. He was just useless. What was his purpose, if not to protect the boy? Who would take care of him now?

There was no one to watch over him. Not as he’d promised. And that mean Robin’s parents hadn’t watched over him either. Bramble hadn’t looked down from the stars, hadn’t been proud of what his little brother had achieved. There had been nobody there for him, ever since they died.

He’d been alone all his life, comforted by happy spirits that didn’t exist.

That last thought made the tears come again. They were cold and icy on his cheeks, and as he cried wisps of ghostly mist wound up from his body in anguish and wrestled with each other in the air. Somehow, he managed to curl up on the ground where he stood, hugging his knees like a child after a nightmare. Heaving with sorrow and wretchedness, he lay there, broken and lonely.

He could never have guessed how long he’d have to stay there alone.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments are very much appreciated! <3


End file.
